Middlesbrough Aitor Karanka crisis: Hartlepool United boss Craig Hignett happy at Pools

His former club have got themselves into a right old mess with boss Aitor Karanka’s position looking extremely precarious.

Karanka is understood to have stormed out of a meeting with his squad on Friday at the Rockliffe Park training complex.

And while it is believed he regretted his actions and was ready to take training yesterday, the club’s board instructed him to stay away and they put Steve Agnew in charge for todays’s vital Sky Bet Championship trip to Charlton Athletic.

Hignett worked as Karanka’s number two for a year before the pair had a bust-up and the Scouser left his beloved Boro.

When Hignett quit his assistant manager’s role to Colin Cooper at Pools in March 2014 to move to Boro, he said the job was too good to turn down.

But the 46-year-old says he would now resist any overtures from the Riverside and his loyalty is now with Pools after taking over as boss from Ronnie Moore.

“I’ve got a job to do at Pools, I love being here,” he said.

“Can you imagine if that [leaving Pools for Boro again] happened? I’d get strung up.”

Hignett has been at the Vic a mere 31 days, leading Pools to three wins and a draw in his seven matches in charge.

He was reluctant to discuss Middlesbrough’s managerial difficulties but was happy to put his Pools cards on the table.

“I don’t really want to comment on it,” he said. “The problems that have happened over there, they will have to deal with it.

“I’m just worried about what happens here, that’s where my focus is.

“I have a project here and the chairman is backing me. He has faith in me and I have faith in him.

“I love this job, I love this club.

“The time I left I didn’t want to leave but I couldn’t say no to it.

“People might say ‘that will be the same with this?’.I say no it won’t.”